It is showcasing all extra PhysX content, mentioned in preview articles – various impact debris and chunks via APEX Particles module, APEX Clothing based cloth simulation on characters and shockwaves from explosions, repelling all physical objects in their blast radius.

Gamespot took an exclusive glimpse on several new features, available for PC version of upcoming Mafia II title – GPU PhysX effects via APEX and 3D Vision.

Specifically, the PC version of Mafia II will take advantage of two different aspects of APEX technology. The first, the “clothing module,” will realistically model flowing clothes on what are designated as “primary characters.” In the case of Mafia II, this means Vito (the protagonist) and any other characters that happen to be up close to him will benefit from this module. The APEX clothing module realistically makes trench coats flap in the wind and sway while characters walk or run.

The second APEX module, the “destruction module,” models realistic damage and deformation on exploding objects, as well as the concussive force of a powerful explosion with an “invisible force field” that realistically sends any sufficiently light objects (or characters) flying. We watched a demonstration of this in action with an exploding car, which smashed nearby crates to bits and sent their splinters–and a nearby mobster–hurtling through the air.

It also offers Mafia II an enhanced particle system that creates discrete and unique, procedurally generated debris when you or other characters destroy any of the game’s deformable objects. The demonstration we watched was from the Wild Ones level we’ve covered previously–specifically, the part where Vito and his gangster buddies use tommy guns and Molotov cocktails to tear a rickety wooden diner to shreds. The scraps of wood and shards of glass realistically went flying with each explosion, and we’re told that no two play-throughs should produce the exact same scraps and shards.

While certain statement brings only more confusion, it’s unclear – is Mafia II really using APEX Destruction (in addition to Clothing and Particles modules) or it is just result of misinterpretation, this article is pretty interesting read in overall.

GPU PhysX support in Mafia II, highly anticipated mobster crime drama from 2K Czech, is not a secret for certain time, and recently official press-release, along with three new screenhots, were revealed.

The integration of PhysX and NVIDIA APEX technology, including the APEX Clothing and Particle modules, enable the city and personalities of Empire Bay to truly come alive on Windows PC. The NVIDIA APEX Clothing module allows for more dynamic movement in clothing, making in-game characters even more realistic and reactive to environmental conditions.

With the implementation of NVIDIA APEX Particles, players are engulfed in lifelike explosions that are bigger and brighter, including weapon fragments, in-game debris and destructible environments that are amplified in both quantity and realism through the integration of APEX Particles. For example, a pistol fired into a glass pane will emit hundreds of glass shards; a shotgun blasted through a wooden landing will splinter the wood; and a Tommy Gun will chip into a brick or stone wall to methodically fracture and break it into pieces.

An addition to hardware accelerated PhysX content, PC version of Mafia II will feature 3D Vision support. Mafia II will be available in North America on August 24, 2010, and internationally on August 27, 2010.

New benchmark for chinese MMORPG JX3 (Jianxia 3 – we’ve wrote about GPU PhysX support previously) has emerged silently on Nvidia website. As far as we know, it was firstly shown at recent NGF 2010 event.

Nvidia has released a small PhysX patch for Batman: Arkham Asylum title.

Update [30.01.2012]: Newer version of RRB library is available, to ensure compatibility with 4xx/5xx series GPUs.

Patch for owners with GeForce 400 Series cards and up and Batman: Arkham Asylum game.

Requires: R290 Graphics driver or greater.

In order to experience Batman: Arkham Asylum to its fullest extent when running PhysX on
Geforce 400 Series cards and up, users will need to replace the existing RRB.DLL file with
a new one. By default, the RRB.DLL can be found in one of the following directoires
depending on the version of Batman Arkham Asylum:
“…\Square Enix\Batman Arkham Asylum\Binaries”
“…\Square Enix\Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY\Binaries”
“…\Steam\Steamapps\common\batman arkham asylum\Binaries“

Where the … is replaced by one of the following depending on the OS version and if it
is a Steam version of the game:C:\Program Files\C:\Program Files (x86)\

If it is not located in this directory, please do a search for the filename
on your system.

The CUDA DLL cudart32_41_0.dll must also be copied to the same Binaries directory where
the RRB.dll file is located.

With launch of their new GTX480/GTX470 GPU products, Nvidia has revealed a trailer, showcasing hardware accelerated PhysX content in Mafia II.

Amount of physics effects is looking impressive – various types of particle debris and chunks, sparks and smoke, destructible objects, APEX based clothing simulation. Not to mention, that apart from those effects, overall in-game physics in Mafia II is based on PhysX SDK too.

Will Mafia II become killer app for GPU PhysX many are waiting for ? We’ll know at August 24th 2010.

Driven by Sarah Tariq (Nvidia) and Joe Cruz (Airtight Fames) this session is covering implementation of a seamless, scalable and directable fluid solver in a Dark Void game engine and describing how it was used to create complex particle effects.